So, at midnight last night I settled down for a sleep when suddenly my 'phone started going crazy with texts to tell me that British airports had reopened at 10pm GMT (midnight here). My initial reaction was to consider pulling my pj top over my head and doing a lap of the pool to celebrate but I decided that was unseemly for a 38 year old Law teacher. And a mite chilly. And insufficiently scaffolded.
So, I'm saved! I'm going home! Well, not quite. The earliest flight my tour operator can book my whole family on is Friday 30th April, that's in 10 days' time! Thankfully I suspected this might occur and I booked a contingency flight for Evan & I earlier in the week whilst they were still available at a cost of €160. So we are hopefully going on Tuesday 27th which is about a week away. Now it seems that spending that much money on a spare flight is a bargain, particularly as I've heard of a colleague whose repatriation costs have exceeded £2000. But she's home now and I'm not.
Now I feel rather like I'm in a Phoney War. The chaos is over but it will be an entire working week until I'm back doing my job or pottering around my own home. We continue to make best endeavours to get back: we ring the consulate daily (I have to say Heraklion consulate staff are just lovely) and on Friday when Easyjet flights resume we're going to the airport again to see whether there's any chance of flying with them - although the website suggests they are all full.
Our international volcanic family is depleted now: our gorgeous Danish co-strandees Anne, Henrijk and Maja have set off for Denmark flying via Athens and Bucharest. I wish them well. The intrepid Jude and Shaun from Sheffield were last heard of in Italy and I hope they're making amazing progress across the continent and will beat me back to Yorkshire.
And whilst I'm sleeping again, and eating again and I've even done actual smiling I can't wholly relax. There's always a niggling worry the flights will be grounded again or that some unforeseen issue will stand between me and LS15. So if you know any millionaires with huge yachts floating round the Aegean right now you might want to suggest to them an exciting cruise between Crete and the Leeds - Hebble navigation. With four very polite passengers aboard.
Yamas!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Definitely go to the airport on Friday. We (cabin crew) were amazed that the majority of our aircraft today were only 1/2 full of passengers; even though our paperwork stated that many more people had booked seats. There is a very good chance you will get onto an earlier flight! xxx
ReplyDeletefingers crossed for a earlier flight x
ReplyDelete